Just before Christmas

 Just before Christmas, I was making this concertina piece.

They left the nest

 At the weekend these two pieces left the nest and went to live in a new home. I am very pleased

They were made in November 2022.

The first is part of a long series of works about living next to the canal, and especially during covid and lockdown. It is not representational but is a sort of abstract landscape. I feel the water, reflections floating leaves and late autumn.. I took this photo just before it was finished. It is mostly collage but a lot of painting in acrylic. It is about 40 x 40 cm

Again a mixed media collage abstract. It is not representational.  approx 50 x 40 cm

I have always made abstract paintings, indeed the first painting I ever sold, about 1958,  was a small abstract, I am very happy about this new turn in my work.  tell me what you think?

Winter trees

Another canal-side painting 

Dark, cold, skies and stark silhouettes of trees looming over the towpath

mixed media on watercolour board  305 x 254 mm

Canal again

Two more from the same walk

 

Ghostly hands, or is it the reflection of pollarded willows in the cold water?  Mixed media on watercolour board 356 x 254m

Canalside trees and a winter sky. mixed media on watercolour board 305 x 254 mm

For images of a more colourful  and abstract nature, later in the year, see the post before last 

 

Fruits of lockdown.

 I know we are not technically still in lockdown, but I feel it has been almost two years of living like a hermit. At times I have painted and drawn a lot and then the paralysis sets in. I am in that state now. So I thought I should show you some of what I have been doing., in the hope of spurring me on!  I live next to the Bridgwater/-Taunton canal and walk there most days.

This quick sketch, from the towpath, is a bleak day in January a year ago.  Acrylic on watercolour board  305mm x 254 mm. It feels lonely and cold and I was!

The Sky shines in the canal. painted October 2020

Covid has had varying effects on me. Lutje and I have been in different countries since March. I t is not easy. I try to keep to the house being especially vulnerable, partly from my age but mostly from medical conditions. Also since I had to give up my car 13 months ago I cannot stray far!

I have tried to do lots of painting but it doesn't always work. But sometimes I have a burst. In particular, the canal next to the house and Victoria Park have been my inspiration.  I am doing many more, landscape-inspired abstract paintings

I want to show you these to get me painting and posting again  All three, 120 x  175 mm are mixed media mostly acrylic and coloured pencil on mountboard and were painted the same day in October. The sky reflected in the water and the dying vegetation.

 Over the next few days, I will try to post a selection of the many drawings, painting and photographs I have made over recent months as well as any new works I may create.

INERTIA

For personal reasons, I have dried up.  Ill health and an accident didn't help but it is almost a year since I last posted.  I want to paint but, like my music, my piano and organ playing, I just seize up.  I don't want to dwell on this and am hoping that starting my blogs again will motivate me.

I have just made two posts to my small paintings blog.  Why not have look here and here?

Here is one of the little drawings